Meaning and Moral Order Explorations in Cultural Analysis [Paperback]

Meaning and Moral Ordergoes beyond classical, neoclassical, and poststructural theories of culture in its attempt to move away from problems of meaning to a more objective concept of culture. Innovative, controversial, challenging, it will compel scholars to rethink many of the assumptions on which the study of ideology, ritual, religion, science, and culture have been based.

Robert Wuthnowis Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and author ofThe Consciousness Reformation(California, 1976) andExperimentation in American Religion: The New Mysticisms & Their Implications for the Churches(California, 1978).

Thanks to explorations such as Robert Wuthnow's, it will soon be normal practice to incorporate a cultural dimension into sociological enquiry. Mary Douglas, co-author ofRisk and Culture

List of Tables
Preface

1. A Puzzle: The Question of Religious Vitality
2. Contemporary Spirituality: Seeking the Sacred in an Era of Uncertainty
3. A Blending of Cultures: The Arts and Spirituality
4. Personal Spirituality: Art and the Practice of Spiritual Discipline
5. The Joy of Worship: Expression and Tradition in Congregational Life
6. Redeeming the Imagination: The Arts and Spiritual Virtue
7. The Morality Problem: Why Churches and Artists Disagree
8. The Artist in Everyone: Faithful Living in a Spiritual Democracy

Appendix: Methodology
Notes
Index